Muffled
by WordsintheFrost
Summary: Honestly, how do you miss a group of trolls stroll on by and take a couple of horses?


"Fili, Kili, look after the ponies, make sure you stay with them." Thorin nodded at his nephews, who exchanged grins, before joining Gandalf by the destroyed lodgings to have an apparently interesting private conversation - so interesting that it had the wizard storming out of the place in a matter of minutes. The dwarves looked between themselves in confusion while Bilbo tried his best not to have a small panic attack as Gandalf's horse disappeared on the horizon.

They had two hours left of sunlight, at most; Kili had been gathering the ponies near the small ravine where the grass was still fresh with the early rains while Fili fetched a few of their essential items like cloths and pipes and came to place them under a group of nearby rocks which seemed decent enough to lay against for a couple of hours. Bilbo had seemed reluctant to stop petting Myrtle and Kili had to laugh at the way he waved goodbye to his pony.

"What is it?" Fili asked as he saw Kili approach with the last ponies.

"It seems our burglar's made a friend." He tilted his head towards Bilbo's pony and laughed again as Fili snorted. "She is a lovely one, mind you."

"Yes, yes, just go put them with the others, will you? I'm getting cold."

Kili gave a short mocking bow and took the horses to the others, coming back to join his brother who was already resting against the rocks and smoking slowly but steadily, staring at the night sky with a small frown on his face. "Something the matter?" Kili asked, nudging Fili with his foot before sitting next to him.

"It's not been long... but something feels different already."

"Hum, well I don't see it." Kili curled closer to Fili and put his hands inside the sleeves of his own jacket, rubbing them together for warmth. "And honestly nor do I feel my toes right now, to think we'd have the right to stay by the fire too." He looked sideways at Fili whose expression was starting to soften into its default easy grin.

"I can't see Bungo from here, he's moved." Fili said after a short moment.

"Probably gone to greener parts, they'll be fine, now make room before I bury my freezing face on your neck and give you frostbite." Fili laughed and put his pipe out before opening his jacket, Kili coming to sit between his legs, and closing it around them both.

"Don't know why you insist on travelling so light, you are missing at least one more coat."

"Not all of us can walk around like logs, I choose mobility over commodity, thank you."

Fili struggled with the coat for a moment to dig a knee on his brother's lower back, making him jump. "You are starting to sound like an elf."

Kili chuckled and looked back at the ponies, "Bungo's back, see? No problem whatsoever." Fili hummed in response, his hands resting on Kili's waist. Silence fell between them, broken by Kili's muffled laugh. "Quit it. This is a terrible place and an even worse time."

Fili continued to rub small circles down Kili's stomach and simply placed his chin on his brother's shoulder to speak in his ear. "What in Durin's name are you talking of?" Kili could practically hear the grin in his voice.

"You know that one of them will soon come over with food and-!" Kili's voice broke into a gasp as Fili's hands roamed lower "Fili!" He hissed.

The movements stopped. "Apologies. My hands seem to react most strangely to the cold." He nuzzled Kili's neck lightly, "But to be fair I can hardly blame them, it's been a while..."

Kili fought hard to keep a straight face as he disentangled himself from Fili's arms and turned his head to leer at him. "It has been less than a week, you rascal."

Fili sighed dramatically. "Feels like ages."

"I really don't know how to take that statement. But it's not happening, we are on vigil duty." He relaxed back into Fili's arms, but kept a tense stance. "Imagine uncle Thorin walking by."

Fili couldn't help but shiver briefly at the mental image. "He would be much more put off by us neglecting the ponies. You know he's far too important to just come strolling in here... in the worst case we might give Mr. Baggins a fright." His hand brushed the waist of Kili's trousers.

"That is _not_ funny." But his tone was light and he made no attempt to stop Fili as he ran one of his palms down Kili's tight to press at his crotch. Kili groaned lightly and made to move away. "At least let me turn around, this position is strange."

But Fili simply tightened his hold, making Kili's limbs go loose long enough to nudge him closer into Fili's spread legs. "Just relax, this is good enough for now." Kili exhaled a dramatic breath and tried to get comfortable as Fili resumed running his hands down his sides. "Besides, it was you who didn't want to make too much for a mess."

"Just...gnn, just be quiet." Kili clenched his fist on his brother's sleeve and threw his head back over Fili's shoulder, looking at the darkening sky above them. "This... is unfamiliar... not-ah, not being able to see your face." Fili touched his cheek to Kili's and didn't reply, slowly unfastening the cords of Kili's trousers and slipping a hand inside. The place grew quiet, except for the pacing of the horses and Kili's soft panting and occasional squirming.

"I... ah, stop, stop." Kili closed a hand around Fili's wrist and dislodged himself from his hold to face him as best as he could and grab the fur on Fili's collar to pull him into a messy kiss. Kili could feel Fili smile and they broke the kiss, shaking his head slightly to clear the mist of arousal clouding his thoughts, "Keep quiet and just..." He tackled his brother to the ground, succeeding on following the fall to land on top of his chest and immediately holding Fili's hips under him, lining them with his own and groaning when he heard Fili fake a cough to mask his laughter. "You idiot, 'good enough for now', right." Fili gave up on the coughing and simply laughed as Kili spared a moment to loosen the rest of the waist of his trousers and let them fall to his knees, pressing his erection down the inside of Fili's thigh.

"Come here, let me." Fili nudged Kili closer, kissing under his jaw and trailing a hand down between them to close around Kili once more and stroke him faster this time, enjoying the way Kili's breath sounded more and more incoherent in his ear.

Kili bit down on Fili's earlobe in an attempt to keep quiet before he stopped abruptly and raised his head, looking around. "Did you hear that?"

Fili stopped. "Hear what?"

"I... could swear I heard something nearby." Kili tried in vain to clear his head enough to listen more carefully but was interrupted by Fili resuming his movements. "Ahh, Fili, I told you-"

Fili smiled and kissed him quickly on the lips. "I didn't hear anything, and I'm sure the only thing this silent would be our hobbit so I'd say we need not worry."

"Stop that, or so help me," Kili choked, lowering himself down again regardless and palming a hand on Fili's neck, his thumb trailing the wild pulse point he found there.

As Kili's coordination became more erratic, Fili knew he was near and as he was about to slide down Kili's body with a grin and finish him off, the distinct noise of distress coming from the group of ponies made them both jump and freeze in place, listening.

"Okay, this time I surely heard something too," Fili said.

Kili made an attempt at what Fili thought was the least convincing angry expression in the history of Middle Earth and blinked hard several times, forcing his breathing to slow down, while beginning to pull away and make sense of his clothing. "I told you! Thorin is going to have our heads if anything's happened." He managed to painfully tuck his trousers back on and stand up awkwardly; Fili would have mocked him greatly if he wasn't concerned as well.

Fili stood up as well, adjusting his own trousers in the process, and together they walked closer to the ponies, stopping a few feet away to stare at them in confusion long enough to do the simple math.

They had been standing there, staring at the horses for about four minutes when Bilbo's almost silent walking came closer and the hobbit held the bowls with supper to the brothers, getting no reaction.

"What's the matter?" Bilbo asked.

Kili didn't move. "We were supposed to be looking after the ponies."

Fili counted them again quickly before adding "Only we've encountered a... slight problem... We had sixteen."

"Now there's fourteen."

Bilbo's concern was not really helpful when all that was running through Fili and Kili's head was either "I'm going to kill him" or "If we're lucky Thorin might kill us both first and spare me the trouble." So as they nudged the hobbit into investigating the troll camp and as soon as Bilbo was out of earshot, Kili turned to leer at Fili "This is your fault."

His words lacked spite so Fili simply came closer and faked a hurt look, brushing his shoulder against his brother's. "I was quiet, you were the one cursing in elvish."

"I was not!"

Fili snorted and pointedly looked at Kili's crotch, where his discomfort was still obvious. "Yup, absolutely not my fault, now let's warn the others before our burglar turns into stew."

Kili spared Fili a last glare before following him back to the fireplace. And if they were both walking a little strange, no one seemed to notice.


End file.
